How I Use Kaizen’s “Lean Business” Principles to Stay In Shape at 47
The Japanese approach to Manufacturing worked for my health and fitness too
Ooooh yeah, The Japanese Business Principles Workout program is SO HOT RIGHT NOW, right?
I’m kidding.
Applying the 5S Framework of the Japanese ‘Kaizen’ approach to improving your fitness and body shape the same way companies have used it for ongoing Quality Control probably sounds about as unsexy as you can get…
And yet, that’s exactly what I did in my 40s. Because regardless of:
- the workout program I followed;
- how often I worked out or
- what exercises I did,
the ‘business’ of my body was still a bloated, dysfunctional mess.
In my pre-coaching corporate career, middle management regularly grumbled about the need for ‘lean business,’ ‘a Kaizen approach,’ reducing the bloat and trimming the fat.
This was because it took 4 weeks to order new stationery, and nobody knew the difference between the various departments and what their Exec VPs, Senior Exec VPs, and Exec Senior VPs actually did.
And since my body sure as hell needed some de-bloating and fat trimming, I decided to Kaizen the sh*t out of things…
Kaizen Pillar #1: ‘Seiri’ (Housekeeping)
In manufacturing, this step involves separating necessary and unnecessary workplace items, reducing (and getting rid of) the clutter.
Regarding my workouts, I needed a training program that removed any work that wasn’t needed to achieve my personal fitness goals.
Why was I even working out?
Well, I wanted to build muscle as I got older and keep up my ‘sprint’ fitness so I didn’t get wheezy running up a flight of stairs.
With these goals in mind, I could remove:
- sets of exercises that were less than 6 reps (better for strength), so all sets were a minimum of 8 reps, up to 15;
- medium-intensity cardio (better for general stamina), as I was doing plenty of brisk walking anyway;
- exercises where I struggled to build a mind-muscle connection, never feeling tension in the muscle I was targeting.
- ‘junk sets’, e.g., where I had programmed 4 sets, I held back some energy from the first 2 sets for those last 2 sets. Now, I could just do the 2 work sets.
My Pillar #1 Tip For You
Tidy up your workout program so you are only including the types of training that YOU need for YOUR goals. Every minute you spend exercising should have a reason behind it.
Kaizen Pillars #2 & #3: ‘Seiton’ (Elimination of Waste) & ‘Seiso’ (Cleanliness)
The Kaizen framework encourages an efficient workplace layout and cleanliness to avoid wasting time and effort.
For my workouts this meant that, having tidied things up a little, I now needed my workouts to run smoothly, with minimal set-up and no wasted time in the gym.
In the past, when a planned workout involved too much hopping from free weights to a machine, to setting up a rack and bench, etc. I’d get fed up and change the workout halfway through:
“Ugh, I can’t be assed setting that up, let’s do this other random thing instead!”
I needed to keep my own work(out)place nice and lean.
So, I split my 3 weekly full-body workouts by equipment:
- Bodyweight & Machines Day (minimal setup)
- Compound Lifts Day (rack and barbell-based)
- Dumbbells & Kettlebells Day (easy transitions)
Now, I had 3 separate workouts that kept me in the same gym area each time and focused on achieving my fitness goals.
My Pillars #2 & #3 Tip For You
Maximize the amount of quality work you can do in your workouts while minimizing setup times. Consider the ‘flow’ of your training sessions, can you use the same weight or equipment for two exercises in a row for example?
It’s too easy to lose focus in your workouts if you constantly need to stop and set up benches, dumbbells, etc.
Kaizen Pillar #4: ‘Seiketsu’ (Standardization)
If you’ve ever been in a big manufacturing facility, you’ll have seen lots of posters, signs, laminated sheets everywhere on the walls showing processes, steps, targets, and whatnot. Basically, they’re saying:
This is the way things are to be done, and this is how well we’re doing on that.
This is how I needed it to be in my workouts. I needed to know:
- what my focus was on for the next 6 weeks of training;
- what the hell I needed to do in every workout every week, and
- how well I was doing in each workout compared to last time.
It feels like I’ve tried almost every free and paid workout tracking app in the App Store, and I always come back to…
a wee notebook and pencil
It just works for me. Here’s what I now do to ‘standardize’ things:
- Every 6 weeks, I decide what I want to focus on — specific exercises, specific body parts, whatever. I note that down and sketch out the next 18 (6 x 3) workouts
- Then, each Sunday morning, I scribble down the target weights, sets, reps, and intensity I’ll do that coming week based on how I did last week.
- Then, during the workout, I note down (sometimes with shaky hands!) what I’ve just done.
It may not involve snazzy graphics and laminated posters but it’s what has worked for me to finally standardize my workouts instead of winging it, hopping from goal to goal on a weekly basis.
My Pillar #4 Tip For You
You need a way of comparing one workout to the previous one. Yes, turning up to the train in the first place is the most important thing, but you need to plan and track your workouts.
Knowing what you’ll do each time, what you’re aiming for, and IF you’re making progress is vital to getting the most out of training and sticking with it!
Kaizen Pillar #5: ‘Shitsuke’ (Discipline)
In business improvement circles, this framework pillar of Kaizen simply means a commitment to keeping up with those initial 4 pillars. Continuous Improvement.
Can I do anything, no matter how tiny, to improve things even by 0.1%?
But in my workouts, I use this ‘discipline’ pillar in two ways: a commitment to:
- Just turning up and working out 3 times a week for as long as my (slightly!) older body allows me! And…
- Improving my workouts by having a ‘meeting’ with my wee notebook each Sunday, deciding if an exercise is working for me or not (I recently dropped Upright Rows to save my shoulders, for example).
Just as businesses strive to make this 5S Framework part of the company culture, I’ve thrived by committing to the disciplined approach of having the same framework in my own training.
My Pillar #5 Tip For You
Commit long-term to working out. Make it just something you’ll be doing from now on in some shape or form. By all means, have a different focus every few months, and track how you’re progressing, making tweaks where needed.
But ultimately having the discipline the make ‘Working Out’ just part of who you are now is the most important commitment to make.
Becoming a Lean, Mean, Fit Machine After 40
If you are out of shape in your 40s or 50s, I know it can be exasperating.
You feel like there is so much work and maintenance required to do anything about your fitness, health, and body shape that you’ll never find the time or energy to do anything about it.
But thankfully what the 5S Framework in the Kaizen approach teaches us about getting in shape is that:
- Much of what we think we need to do is unnecessary — focus only on including in your workout plan what is needed to achieve your goals;
- keeping things as simple and repeatable as possible makes sticking with your program a lot easier when you’re already super busy;
- planning and tracking things, having a standardized structure to your weekly workouts, is a surefire way to know if you’re making progress; and
- committing to working out, not for a few weeks, but for the foreseeable future, means you have time to figure it all out, continuously improving your health, fitness, and body shape little by little, week by week.
Could YOUR weekly training plan use some ‘Kaizenning’? Let me know in the comments!
